Nail polish remover.
* * *
The little red car was still there.
Blake Cooper was finally heading home after a long shift. He had already worked more than his allocated hours and he would have stayed longer still so that he’d had a chance to get up to the paediatric wing and check on the baby he’d resuscitated this morning but he had another place he needed to be and someone who needed him to be there.
It made him smile to see the car again. He’d have to tell his mum about it, he decided, as he climbed onto his bike and rocked it free of its stand. A trip down memory lane for both of them was one of her favourite things. Maybe he’d even have a dig in those old boxes at the back of the garage and see if that box of toys was still there somewhere.
His smile died as he lifted his head to put his helmet on.
No way...
It couldn’t be...
But it was. The woman walking towards the little red car was none other than the new nurse from ED.
Samantha Braithwaite.
The name had burned itself into his memory banks instantly, with a similar lightning bolt kind of finality as what she looked like.
And, if he’d thought she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen in that moment, it paled in comparison to what he was seeing now.
She’d been wearing scrubs then. With her hair no more than a lumpy knot at the back of her head.
Right now, she was wearing a gypsy-style, loose white blouse and faded denim shorts with frayed hems that showed off an incredible length of slim, bronzed legs. And her hair... Released from that knot, it was astonishingly long, reaching her waist in a fall of gentle waves that the summer evening breeze was playing with.
Forget the impression of being a princess or a model. What Blake was looking at now was more like an image from one of those magazines he’d hidden under his bed as a teenager.
Every man’s fantasy.
And she owned the vintage MG roadster? Apparently so, given that she’d climbed inside and was now rolling the soft top back.
Blake’s breath came out in a snort. Of course she did. It was probably a gift from a rich father. Or husband. A boyfriend at the very least. Women who looked like that were never alone in life.
Maybe she’d had those stupid dots painted on her nails to match its paintwork, even.
This was ridiculous. Why was he even giving this woman and her questionable life choices any head space at all? Blake jammed his helmet onto his head and kicked the engine of his bike into life. He took off with perhaps a bit more acceleration than was strictly necessary so it really shouldn’t have surprised him that she turned her head to stare at him.
What did come as a surprise was that he rather liked the idea that she was watching him.
* * *
‘How long will I have to wait?’
‘I’m not sure, Jess.’ Sam had come into one of the cubicles assigned to her on this shift, to do the obs on a patient who’d been brought into the ED by ambulance earlier this morning. She watched the drip rate of the IV fluids and slowed them a little by turning the small wheel on the line. These fluids were running simply to keep a vein open in case medication was needed at some point. ‘I can make a call and try and find out, if you like?’
She knew which of the phones on the main desk she could use. And who to call. After a week in her new department, Sam was comfortably familiar with where things were, subtle differences in protocols and her new group of colleagues, both in the department and the consultants who got called in. They were a great bunch of people and Sam knew she was going to make new friends here. She particularly liked Kate Mitchell, an O&G surgeon, who was apparently also a member of the SDR team although she hadn’t had a chance to talk to her about it yet. She lived in the same apartment building as Harriet so maybe she should suggest that they all meet up for a drink one evening, or something.
‘That would be great.’ Jess nodded. ‘I’ve let them know at work that I’m going to be late but I haven’t worked there that long, you know? I don’t want them to think I’m a liability.’
‘I get it. I’m pretty new here, myself. Let me just do your blood pressure and things and I’ll get on it.’
At twenty-five, Jess was only a few years younger than Sam so she already felt an affinity with this patient. That she wanted to impress people at a new job gave them another connection. Sam smiled at her as she wrapped the blood pressure cuff around her arm. Not that she’d managed to impress anybody here yet, as far as she was aware, but at least she’d been able to keep her head down and work hard and had, thank goodness, avoided calling attention to herself for any less than desirable incidents.
She still felt like she was on probation, however, whenever Blake Cooper was in the near vicinity. Which seemed to be an awful lot of the time. She’d developed a kind of internal radar that alerted her to his presence in the department, even when he wasn’t visible, which was a bit weird but she’d proved herself correct often enough to trust it now. It was like some kind of energy that gave a recognisable crackle to the atmosphere.
She wasn’t into auras or anything like that, but it wasn’t hard to recognise charisma and she’d already been intrigued by this man. When she’d seen him roar off on his motorbike that evening last week, the jolt of what could only be described as pure lust had been shocking enough to explain the crackle she was now so aware of. It was also the reason she was avoiding eye contact with him at all costs. It wasn’t easy, either, because that feeling of being on probation came from the knowledge that he was keeping an eye on her.
Watching what she was up to and whether she was doing her job to an acceptable level of expertise.
How embarrassing would it be if he could see how attractive she found him?
She noted a normal blood pressure and then picked up the tympanic thermometer.
‘I’m sure I don’t have a temperature,’ Jess told her. ‘I don’t feel sick.’
‘We’re just keeping an eye on things. An infection is one of the things that could be interfering with your anti-epileptic medication.’
‘I don’t even think I had a seizure. I just fainted or something.’
‘You may as well get checked out properly while you’re here.’
‘I wouldn’t be here, if that cop hadn’t been in the coffee shop when it happened. He was the one who called an ambulance.’
‘I might have done the same thing myself, if I’d noticed your MedicAlert bracelet.’
‘But I was fine by the time it arrived. If he hadn’t threatened to call my parents if I didn’t go to the hospital, I’d be at work now and wouldn’t be here wasting people’s time.’
‘When was the last time you had an EEG?’
‘After my last seizure, nearly two years ago. Oh...’ Jess groaned. ‘I was just about to be able to get my driver’s licence back, you know? This really sucks...’
‘I know.’ Sam wrote the normal temperature onto the chart. ‘It’s a bit stressful starting a new job. Have you been sleeping okay? Eating well?’
They were all questions that had been asked by the junior registrar who’d been assigned this patient but, sometimes, people found it less intimidating to chat to their nurse and new information could be forthcoming.
But Jess just shook her head. ‘You’re starting to sound like my mother.’
‘Sorry.’